Maze navigation by honeybees: Learning path regularity

We investigated the ability of honeybees to learn mazes of four types: cons tant-turn mazes, in which the appropriate turn is always in the same direct ion in each decision chamber; zig-zag mazes, in which the appropriate turn is alternately left and right in successive decision chambers; irregular ma zes, in which there is no readily apparent pattern to the turns; and variab le irregular mazes, in which the bees were trained to learn several irregul ar mazes simultaneously. The bees were able to learn to navigate all four t ypes of maze. Performance was best in the constant-turn mazes, somewhat poo rer in the zig-zag mazes, poorer still in the irregular mazes, and poorest in the variable irregular mazes. These results demonstrate that bees do not navigate such mazes simply by memorizing the entire sequence of appropriat e turns. Rather, performance in the various configurations depends on the e xistence of regularity in the structure of the maze and on the ease with wh ich this regularity is recognized and learned.